(1) Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a system for improved electroencephalography (EEG) rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stimuli detection and, more particularly, to a system for improved EEG RSVP stimuli detection through insertion of visual attention distracters.
(2) Description of Related Art
Rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) measures the brain activity of a human subject while watching a stream of rapid images in order to find incongruities and inconsistencies in the images (i.e., “targets”). It is well known, though not completely understood, that humans experience both attentional blink and repetition blindness when searching for objects of interest (i.e., targets) in a target rich RSVP. Prior art related to RSVP-based attentional blink and repetition blindness have focused on understanding the underlying visual and cognitive causes. In some cases attentional blink has been theorized to be caused by conceptional similarities and in other cases by emotional mediated attention, as described by Most et al. in “Attentional Rubbernecking: Cognitive control and personality in emotion-induced blindness”, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, Volume 12, Number 4, 654-661.
Still furthering the confusion at understanding attentional blink has been the effect of “Lag 1” sparing. When two rapidly presented targets (T1 and T2) occur within about a halfa second of each other, T2 is often missed. However, if T2 immediately follows T1, performance is often reported being as good as that at long lags, as described by Hommel and Akyüre in “Lag-1 Sparing in the Attentional Blink: Benefits and Costs of Integrating Two Events into a Single Episode”, The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 2005, 58A (8), 1415-143. One hypothesis to explain the Lag 1 sparing involves the release of a neurotransmitter that benefits the detection of the stimulus for 100 milliseconds before the neurons in the locus coeruleus enter a refractory period, due to the auto-inhibitory effect of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine, as described by Nieuwenhuis et al. in “The Role of the Locus Coeruleus in Mediating the Attentional Blink: a Neurocomputational Theory”, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 134 (3): 291-307, 2005.
While the causes of these phenomenon are being researched and debated, no known attempts have been made to utilize the empirical results to develop a method to improve EEG based threat detection in a target rich RSVP sequence. Thus, a continuing need exists for a method that utilizes the empirical results to determine improvements to RSVP sequences.